An Embarrassing Situation
by DWIAgal
Summary: What should've been an ordinary day and a standard mission instead leaves the Torchwood Team in disarray. Reeling from the kidnap of one of their team members, they must quickly uncover the secrets of a mysterious alien organisation to find their friend, and try to stay alive. Team story. Lots of kicking butt. Lots of friendship & some bickering. NO bashing. Canon ships hinted at.
1. Lots and lots of paperwork

It was early on the Tuesday morning when Ianto arrived with fresh coffee beans and pastries for the team. Early morning was always his favourite time of the day. The hub was quiet and calm before his team mates arrived and he enjoyed the rare moments of normality. It was also the time of the day he managed to get all the odd jobs done and have a peek in the archive.

Sometimes he came early for other company…

Ianto let out a merry whistle as he descended into the hub, just about to wonder into Jack's office when he caught movement by the computers.

"Gwen?" The mop of dark hair moved at the sound.

"Ianto," A voice grunted from underneath the black curtain, "I could kill a coffee right now. Do you mind?"

"Of course, Gwen" Ianto said. "Long night?"

"Weevil galore," Gwen grunted, a hand emerging from the puff of hair to reach clumsily for a glass of water on her desk.

Ianto nodded, making a course for the kitchen. He could see she would be needing his services frequently if she was even going to make it through the morning. He glanced at the clock on the wall as he entered the kitchen.

"I'm later than normal," he muttered aloud. "The traffic was quite heavy I guess."

He shrugged. If they were only doing paperwork and responding to minuscule blips then he was sure to be able to squeeze in some time in the archives.

"Ianto!"

Ianto nearly jumped out of his skin.

"Jack! You know it's not polite to sneak up on someone."

"I'm sorry," Jack said, grinning. "I thought you'd be glad to see me."

Instead Ianto backed away a few steps. "You _stink_! And is that Weevil fluids on your jacket?!" Jack looked innocently down at his jacket, as if for the first time noticing it was covered in a glistening, brown liquid. "Did you and Gwen just get back?"

Jack carefully peeled the jacket off, and looked up at the clock. "About five minutes before you came in. Gwen's not too pleased with me as you can see."

"Anything on the rift monitor?" Ianto asked.

"Nothing," Jack sighed, as if a lack of alien attacks and life endangering situations was the biggest disappointment of his day.

"Then why keep her here?" Ianto asked, rolling his eyes at his boss as he prepared her coffee.

"I'll let her leave as soon as she's done the reports. As it is we're working on a huge backlog after… well, you know… All the stuff that's happened this year."

Ianto fought down the wave of anger and sadness that always came when Lisa's death was mentioned, knowing there was no point churning up hurt feelings again. He used the silence to finish Gwen's drink, and quickly start making Jack's. His boss stood by and watched him, sensing it was not a topic to be brought up.

"There you go, sir" Ianto said when he'd finished, handing him his coffee after sprinkling a little bit of cinnamon on top.

"You don't mind having a look at Janet's new friends when you get a chance?"

"Of course," Ianto said, dreading the thought of what probably waited for him. "Anyway, better give Gwen her coffee so she doesn't burn the place down…"

* * *

"So, what's the deal with today?" Owen asked, casually flinging his muddy legs onto the pristine surface of the table and leaning back in his chair.

"Do you mind?" Gwen snapped, pushing the feet promptly away from her, "Some of us have actually matured past high school and know how to use some bloody etiquette."

"Oh yes, because you're well past high school. We all _love_ hearing about what Miss bloody Cooper's boyfriend had for-"

"Kids, please!"

Jack strode purposely into the room with his usual gleaming grin and swept up a seat at the head of the table. Gwen continued to scowl at Owen. "I want to keep this meeting short and sweet. You two can squabble later. If you will, Tosh?"

The woman in question blushed under the shared gaze of the three in the room but quickly gathered herself and smiled tentatively. "Looks like there's no expected rift activity today."

Gwen and Owen both groaned.

"Gwen Cooper, please tell me you have _something_ for us to do?"

The brunette eyed Owen distrustfully. "Just a moment ago you were intent on being an absolute twat…"

"Yes, well, people change… Time is short… Yada yada… And if I have to spend another day pretending to do paperwork I _will_ consider trying to teach Janet to dance or perhaps test-fly Myfanwy around Cardiff out of sheer and utter boredom."

Gwen looked ready to snipe at him about work ethics and pulling his weight when Ianto floated in with a tray of streaming mugs.

"Always on perfect time," Jack smiled, the words having a double meaning as the fight between the two dissolved.

"Thank God!" Owen said, speaking for everybody.

The team gratefully took their mugs and waited for Ianto to settle in next to Tosh.

"You're a lifesaver, Ianto," Gwen said, taking a long chug of hers.

"Gwen?" Jack prompted, already tapping his fingers impatiently on the table.

Gwen didn't look too pleased at being interrupted, and looked down at her pile of papers with a frown. "The agitated weevils were all dealt with last night. And I mean _all._ Every single one of the seven reports, with a few surprise appearances, to a total of eleven extra friends for Janet. I would have the reports written up, but in the last twelve hours I have had no sleep, and about an hour not spent running in the rain or fearing a car accident, and most of them have been spent writing these notes or here. In this room. Putting up with Owen being a prat." She flickered one last glare at him. "So I really don't know what amazing thing you expect me to have mustered up in that time."

"Right…" Jack said sighing, "I guess I should've been expecting that." Gwen nodded stiffly. "Thank you, Gwen."

The brunette nodded and went immediately back to inhaling her coffee.

"Anybody else have anything to report? Owen?"

"The snot I was examining yesterday of subject XY1 was very acidic. I may have burnt through another sheet or two…"

Jack sighed again, "Alright, noted. Ianto, we'll need more sheets. I don't think our supplies will last the month."

"Hey!"

"Just telling the truth."

"I'll pick some up today sir," Ianto agreed. "And factor it into the budget."

Jack smiled. "Good man Ianto. Anybody else? Ianto, how are our new friends going? I went down a few minutes ago to have a look and noticed Janet's tried to do some territorial thing in her cell… I think you get the gist…"

"Janet has taken a liking to the Weevil in the cell opposite so you may hear some banging but otherwise they have adjusted well."

"Alright then. Factor in more food and water into the budget too then please. We'll see what we can do about another rehabilitation mission in the near future."

"Already done sir."

"Thanks Ianto. As for the rest of us. Office work until the rift plays up again. I'll go through any possible media and Police cases. Gwen, you do those reports for me and I'll give you the rest of the day off. Owen, if you stopped procrastinating you wouldn't have to frantically try and do all the paperwork on the last day of the month. I think you know what to do, Tosh. Ianto, I'm sure we'll keep you busying archiving, but if you have any free time you can go supply shopping."

Everybody nodded and slowly shuffled out of their seats.

"Hang on," Owen said, catching the attention of everyone, "what are you going to be doing after that little bit of news checking from this morning? That's easy stuff!"

Jack grinned at him easily. "Paperwork and administration… the same as you, Owen. Just because I'm the boss doesn't mean I get to miss out on boring things."

Owen stomped out first, grumbling about how irritatingly happy Jack seemed to be about paperwork. After a stern glance at him to say that she was at her wit's end already, Gwen followed. Ianto and Tosh walked out together, chatting about the weather, or something Jack considered equally uninteresting.

He frowned and followed.

Even if he tried to appear otherwise, he really did hate paperwork. Phone calls to military and political bureaucrats were not his favourite either but at least he could mess around with them until they eventually gave up or did what he wanted them too. Paperwork had the sole purpose of ruining his day.

Jack went into his office, and cleared the table for the pillar of monotonous papers waiting for him on the filing cabinets. He wrote a sticky note and stuck it to his monitor to remind him to ring about the budget before 3pm, and another to get permission to hire someone about the mould problems in the lower levels. He grabbed the first pile of papers. It was going to be a long day.

* * *

Outside in the main area, Gwen and Tosh both worked silently. Raised voices and slamming drawers crept out of Jack's office on occasion and Janet was enjoying banging everything she could in her cell, but by now everybody was so used to these noises that it may as well been the air conditioning.

"She's quite a character," Ianto had told them while on route to the cleaning closet and both of the women looked up, smiling as they noticed the yelling going on about the budget. Ianto paused for a moment to wipe off a trail of dust on the hand rails beside him, apparently unperturbed by the sheer impossibility of one man keeping the whole Hub spick and span. "Hates Jack of course."

"She sounds like a feisty one, "Owen yelled from the autopsy bay, "wonder how many times he's shagged her."

Both of the women rolled their eyes but did not take the bait.

"Coffee?"

Everybody yelled requests and Ianto tucked his red, satin tie back into the smooth silhouette of his suit jacket before wandering off to sort it out.

Tosh had made good headway on a program Jack had requested be redone but it was too easy. She'd been letting out little cat-like yawns as she worked, fending off the need for intellectual stimulation beyond that of a normal computer whiz. She hoped some caffeine would wake her up.

Tosh smiled when Ianto placed her coffee gently on the desk.

"Thanks, Ianto. How are you going? Has Janet made some more mess?"

Ianto smiled, pretending to evaluate. "No more. I'd only give it a three. It was quite messy, but not exceedingly so."

Tosh let out a little giggle. "You rate the level of mess she makes?"

"I do now." He paused, looked at her screen and back at her. "How's the program going?"

"Fine. Just fixing up the errors the last person made. Most of it's pretty basic stuff."

"Sounds like it's a bit dull," he said. She nodded.

"What about your other program? The one you hope will be able to track the Weevil migration movements and predict possible exposure points?"

* * *

Not far away Gwen was trying to block out their excited chatter as she wrote her fifth report from the night before. The words were blurring in front of her eyes.

"Where did the third weevil go?" She muttered to herself, feeling a wave of exasperation come over her again. She could've had the reports all done in a few hours if Jack had let her go home to sleep. At the rate she was going she wouldn't get them done until mid-afternoon. So much for a day off!

The brunette reached for her messy notes again and attempted to decipher the map she'd drawn earlier as Tosh shifted through her own papers to show Ianto her plans for her program.

She was about to pass Tosh the notes and ask if she could read it when she finally registered that the computer whiz was already busy talking. Gwen dropped the papers back onto her desk, feeling somewhat hurt as she listened to the enthusiastic conversation. Tosh never talked to her like that.

Gwen tried to turn her attention back to her own work but found herself listening in anyway. Just enough to have Tosh's laugh ringing in her ears until it evolved into a pounding headache.

Couldn't they hear how loud they were being? Gwen scowled down at the page, trying to trace out her thin pencil marks in the hope it would suddenly tell her the information she needed even as the words blurred away. Ianto cracked another joke that Tosh had to giggle about. Gwen's pencil snapped in her hand. She let the shattered pieces drop onto the table. How was she supposed to get anything done with all this bloody noise?!

"There's this beautiful coffee shop just on the corner of Parson's St that just opened. They have this section of the shop dedicated to this small library where you can donate one of your novels in exchange for another book. And there are some desks overlooking a small courtyard. On the weekends I like to take my laptop down there and-"

"Do you _mind_?" Gwen finally burst. "Can't you see I'm busy! _Busy!_ "

There was immediate silence. Gwen's head was ringing. She couldn't tell if it was from the lack of sleep or the overcompensation of coffee.

"Can't even read the bloody notes I need," she hissed, sweeping her remaining pens and pencils onto the floor while knocking down some picture frames too. "I give up!"

She buried her head in her arms and hoped that the others would leave her alone.

 _If he won't let me go home then I'll sleep here instead!_ She thought bitterly.

"Another coffee, Gwen?" Ianto asked, and she felt his arm brush hers as he went to grab her mug.

She slapped his hand away, not even noticing her own was bleeding. "No, I do not want another bloody coffee! I want some peace and quiet so I can finish these stupid reports so I can go home and sleep and eat some normal food and pretend I care about my boyfriend's stupid job so he doesn't leave me and ring up my parents for their anniversary and make excuses about why I can't go." Gwen knew she was rambling but could not find a reason to stop. "And then I have to message my friend and pretend to care about her new baby because I know she's angry at me for missing her wedding and her birthday so I don't lose all my friends and my boyfriend and my family. Is that too hard to understand?!"

Gwen found herself shouting by the time she finished.

"Alright Gwen" Tosh said, looking at her as if she'd just given birth to kittens. "We get it. You're tired."

Ianto just calmly pointed at her hand. "You might want to put something on that. It's bleeding all over your notes."

"Shit!" Gwen hissed, realising too late that her map had disappeared under small puddle of blood. "You've got to be kidding me!"

"I'm sure Owen-"

"I can do it myself!"

Gwen grabbed a handful of tissues and began dabbing at the ruined notes.

"Tosh, any chance you can print out the maps from last night. I think Gwen's lost her copy…"

* * *

Down the stairs, Owen was catching up on an alien autopsy he'd almost forgotten about; a big green fellow with vicious fangs and a furry behind. The species had a defensive mechanism (although why a creature with physical traits that spoke of a predator would need the defence was beyond him) of admitting a foul, nauseating fume when hurt. Despite being well and truly dead, and with fresh air pumping into the area, the corpse still smelt absolutely putrid. It was as bad as the time he'd had to deal with a body left in a functioning sauna for two weeks.

He chuckled as he heard Gwen shouting, lifting a quickly disintegrating kidney. "Guess it _is_ like an old corpse," he thought aloud. The doctor leant down to scrawl this hurriedly in his notes after placing the kidney in a jug with preservative fluids.

After finishing the autopsy, he wandered up the stairs in pursuit for some fresh air and hopefully a coffee. As a bonus he might even catch Gwen losing it over her reports. Instead he found the rest of the team had migrated into the main area already and were eating pizza scrolls. Ianto turned instinctively with a paper bag so Owen could grab one out. Gwen didn't even look his way. She looked about ready to burst into tears.

"Cheers mate," he muttered before reaching with his other hand for the cup of coffee also extended to him. He had to admit, the Teaboy was a good butler.

"Are you sure there's nothing to do?" Jack asked Tosh. Owen frowned at the desperateness in his voice. So much for loving paperwork.

The delicate woman turned back to her screen, having already finished.

"No," Tosh said firmly. She flicked casually to the program to illustrate the lack of readings or predictions knowing nobody dared challenge readings from the rift monitor. There were resigned sighs from Jack. "I've checked three times. No proper expected rift activity to-"

Tosh was cut off by the blaring call of the alarm.

"What's that then?" Owen questioned with a grin.


	2. A Long Day Gets Longer

**A/N: Hello guys, so I've been working on this story for a while though I haven't posted anything for many years on here. Apologies I forgot to say anything on the first chapter. I might add something later. I have nearly 30, 000 words of this already written but there are some parts that need editing and some moments that don't feel quite right yet as far as the characters go so I'm trying to iron out those problems before posting. I won't be posting an update every day, as lovely as that would be, because I want to be at least reasonably happy before posting each chapter. :)**

 **Reviews are welcome... Pointing out grammar and spelling issues is especially appreciated. However, character bashing will not be tolerated under any circumstances. If you don't like that rule, then please don't read. I'm trying my best to give all the characters justice (including giving them some flaws) and a chance to shine while writing a story most people hopefully should be able to enjoy, so if you choose to ruin that I will not hesitate from blocking you. I hope you understand. :)**

* * *

The day was overly bright for Cardiff and Jack almost broke the breaks avoiding a car driving past the entrance to the underground parking.

"Well, this is nice," Jack noted, blinking a few times to clear his eyes before swerving the car out. Everybody was used to his erratic driving and moved instinctively with the tight turn of the vehicle. It was less sickening that way.

"Funny, it was rainy this morning. You'd think with this lovely weather it'd be the middle of summer, not the middle of autumn," Gwen said as they headed in the general direction of the docks. She squinted up at the sun, looking a little bit more cheerful now that they were out of the hub.

Though the sky was still peppered with wispy clouds, warm rays of light had managed to push their way through the gloom, shining triumphantly over their course along the mostly uncrowded late morning streets. Ianto peeked his gaze out the front window and nodded agreement.

"Who cares anyway?" Owen said. He glared at Gwen and she returned it almost immediately with the same vehemence. "It's always bloody cold; sun looks like a damp napkin. It's still miserable weather compared to most of the world. Bet this would be considered overcast in Australia."

"Well, aren't you in a dapper mood today..." Ianto's voice was laced with sarcasm.

"I'm in a perfectly fine mood thank you very much, Teaboy," Owen sniffed. "I'm just able to admit the crappiness of the place I unfortunately live in."

"Then go live in Australia."

"Too hot. I'd shrivel up in the sun."

Gwen let out a huff of disapproval and pointedly turned her attention to checking the information Tosh was sending through from the front seat. Ianto quirked an eyebrow at him, warning him he was messing with fire irritating her when she'd had no sleep before turning back to watching the road ahead.

* * *

Ianto was trying to shake the sweat out of his hair as he jogged towards where his other colleagues had already gathered, all looking tired and ready to call it quits after the long drawn out mission. The team had only been split between two warehouses, but with the strength, organisation, and sheer number of the enemy, he'd barely crossed paths with most of them. He was not looking forward to being the bringer of bad news.

"Where's Owen?"

Ianto stopped hesitantly before he reached them, squinting in the bright afternoon light.

Gwen passed a bottle of water with a half-hearted smile, lacking her usual vigour. Ianto felt a wave of guilt as he took a few gulps, knowing she wanted nothing more than to go home and sleep.

"Owen's gone…"

Ianto looked back up at the white sky laced with little golden hints. It had hardly changed since that morning. Somehow the very sight of it was absurd.

"Gone?" Jack said, jaw clenching.

"They must've taken him while I was fighting off the other guard," he explained. Jack's ice blue gaze went straight through him so he looked away. "I was only busy for a moment but they were both missing when I turned back. Just not there." He glanced at Gwen for some encouragement or comfort. Instead the intense fear and worry that he saw sent a jolt of panic up his spine. He shivered despite the heat of the day. They hadn't had a kidnapping for months.

"By the time I'd got out to the carpark they'd disappeared completely. I-I'm sorry."

"Owen's been kidnapped?" Tosh peeked up from her machine, looking deflated.

"I should've been paying more attention," he apologised, "I can't believe they were able to slip him out right under my nose."

"We've lost Owen," Tosh murmured to herself in shock.

"Owen can look after himself. If they managed to take him they must've been very quick" Jack assured him, thought there was a tightness to his smile that said otherwise.

Gwen sighed, "we underestimated them. Great."

Jack looked between all of them with a frown. "Underestimated maybe, but then this whole thing had the bad taste of being planned."

"Planned? You think they took Owen on purpose?"

"I had a look around for him. Everything's gone pretty much. I think they were ready to go before we got here."

"Why Owen though?" Tosh questioned, "why have they targeted him?"

"Maybe they needed something to use against us potentially, and Owen was the easy target." Gwen suggested, then yawned.

"It could've been an accident. They realise they've possibly alerted themselves to us and pack up everything up to go just in case," Jack said.

"Doesn't matter right now anyhow. Whatever's happened, we'll find him. We always do." Gwen announced, giving Tosh a reassuring nudge. They all nodded agreement, some more hesitant then others.

Jack turned to analyse the monumental warehouse, the older man's jaw tensed as he examined the red paint peeling off the colossal walls, and the tear-like trails of rust curling down the tin. In the warm light, his well chiselled face seemed to glow with assurance but his eyes remained a harsh icy blue as they flickered to appraise Ianto.

"You were right about the vehicles, Ianto." His voice was sharp and business-like and drew the attention of the women. "I saw a few vans around the back of the main warehouse which I'm sure they would've taken."

"Did you put a tracker on them?" Tosh chipped in. Gwen patted her once more on the back before turning to check the time on her phone. The phone had fallen out of her pocket the night before and damaged the screen so she was left squinting to try and make the time out.

"Gwen and I were ambushed. We didn't make it round in time," he said, crossing his arms. Tosh let out a frustrated sigh and glanced back down at her PDA.

"And you had to get yourself killed _again_ ," Gwen muttered off-handedly.

Ianto shook his head at Jack, trying to tell him not to react, but it was too late.

"I was trying to save you!"

Gwen crossed her arms with stubborn defiance and pinched her lips, gearing up for a fight, "I'm perfectly capable of shooting a gun!"

"I should think so, because I taught you." Jack huffed. Gwen rolled her eyes and let out a sarcastic mumble. "But then walking out into the line of fire is kind of a rookie mistake!"

"Well, a little warning would've been nice you know! That's the whole point of me covering your back. Although apparently that doesn't _matter_ if you're immortal!" She flung her arms out to emphasise her point. "So long as you can throw yourself in front me like a tragic hero and get killed it's all good!"

Ianto finally snapped. "Gwen, Jack! We don't have time for this! If it's anybody's fault it was mine. He was _my_ partner in the mission."

Dead silence followed his accusation as the heated atmosphere dissolved into melancholy again.

"I-I'm sorry. I shouldn't have brought it up," Gwen mumbled apologetically. She was looking teary again. "You know we don't blame you right?"

"I apologise, "Jack said too. His voice was gruff and uncomfortable in comparison. "We don't have time for petty fights. We have a member missing and we need to find him."

"I've searched the surrounding area for any life signs but found nothing," Tosh informed them. Her voice was flatter than usual.

"So we'll need to search the warehouses for any clues. Gather everything we can about what's been happening and why and where they've taken Owen hostage. " Jack said. The change of tone was instant to that of the confident, practical role of leader again. "Gwen and Ianto you'll be in charge of reconnoitring the inside of the warehouse to start with."

Gwen nodded warily, not willing to spark anymore conflict over whatever grievances she had about that idea.

"I already had a look Sir, in the main warehouse." Ianto said. "Owen is not in there. Nothing is in there of any use to us."

"Nothing wrong with another search..."

Ianto and Gwen shared an exasperated glance as he ploughed on relentlessly with instructions. She let out a long, tired sigh as she listened. Ianto frowned, watching the woman rubbing her eyes. She looked terrible. The blotchy purple bags under her eyes had got worse from the morning, making harsh indents in her cheeks.

He flushed as her gaze suddenly flicked to him. Her expression was guarded. "Any particular reason you're staring at me, Ianto?"

Ianto frowned at her. "Don't wear yourself too thin," he warned.

She nodded, but it seemed half-hearted.

Jack was just finishing up as they tuned in again, "-see if I can get a reading of recent alien activity." He stopped and frowned as he took in each of his weary team, "first, I think we could use some energy. You all look awful."

They all let out a sigh of relief, even Tosh. Ianto made a beeline for his makeshift coffee supply while Tosh and Gwen quietly followed him over to organise food and supplies.

* * *

A few minutes later and they were all gathered around the SUV with steaming coffee flasks and some sandwiches that had survived adequately seeing as they'd been in the car for hours. Ianto tapped Jack on the arm as he greedily snatched three up and took a huge bite out of one of them.

"Jack, can we talk?"

Jack frowned curiously at him, his face quickly lifting into a staple flirtatious smile that was marred completely by a piece of tuna wedged between his front teeth, "anything for you, Ianto."

Ianto very nearly shuddered at Jack's lack of manners and hurriedly led him out of ear shot as Gwen and Tosh were distracted in grabbing food.

Jack quirked an eyebrow suggestively, "so are we talking business or something _else_?"

This time Ianto planted his arms on his hips and did roll his eyes.

"Well?" Jack drew out the sound obnoxiously and Ianto was almost gleeful to burst his bubble.

"Work."

Jack's face dropped dramatically, "oh..."

"You said it yourself, Sir. This whole thing reeks of being a set-up. On a quiet day we're giving a moderate sized blip that was not predicted by the rift monitor to draw us all out of the base. We're told it's caused by an artefact, only to arrive at a large, organised alien operation. We split up to get inside and try and figure out who's in charge and what their plan is, and they wear us down until they're able to kidnap Owen remarkably fast. And then they all pack up and leave straight away, somehow managing to have left pretty much nothing behind."

"I know…" Jack said, sighing. "It does seem off. But there must be _something_ to go off. Some hint that could help us on the track to finding Owen. I saw computers in there that they must've used. Maybe one of them could give us something."

"Or maybe there isn't… Maybe they're trying to delay us returning to base…"

Jack raised an eyebrow. "You think they're planning an attack on the hub?"

Ianto shrugged, not sure why he had this feeling irking him that something was wrong. Perhaps he just felt responsible because he was meant to be the one who watched Owen's back. "I think they're planning something. They knew how to alert us of their presence, Sir."

"We should be telling the others this. See what they think," Jack said, licking his lips. "But we'll wait until we get back to base. Just a quick look around to see if there's anything on the computers or that we missed and we'll head back. Is that all you wanted to talk about?" Jack took another bite of his sandwich.

"Another thing about Gwen actually," he hurried; well aware that the others would notice they'd been gone for a long time though a glance back told him they had not yet. At least, he reasoned to himself, they'd just think they were flirting.

Jack's voluptuous bites changed to quiet nibbles, "Gwen? This isn't about earlier is it?"

His face echoed some of the tension he'd had in the argument but he relaxed as Ianto waved it off.

"You've had her working on her feet for nearly thirty four hours straight. That goes against even Torchwood protocols."

"So? It's been a hectic week. It happens with Torchwood. And now with Owen missing I need all my agents."

He sniffed pretentiously as he waited for an answer, stuffing half a ham and cheese sandwich into his expansive jaws and chewing like a chainsaw.

Ianto let out a whistle of frustration, "I'm talking strategy. If we do a raid we'll already be down an agent so you'd better think about giving her some down time while we're searching for leads."

Jack stiffened, a dark frown fitting his face. He once again abandoned his foul eating habits and opened his mouth in protest, but Ianto jumped in before him.

"All I was going to suggest was to let her take a nap in the backseat!" he whispered urgently.

"Oh," Jack said relaxing and a moment later he scratched his ear sheepishly and replied, "Well, I suppose we can do that if you feel you can search the warehouse by yourself."

Ianto made a move to go back to the SUV to finally get a drink of his own coffee when Jack latched onto his arm once again.

"Jack?"

"You sure you have nothing else you want to discuss?"

Ianto yanked his arm out of Jack's, shaking his head and practically jogging back over to the girls. As soon as he arrived he grabbed his flask of coffee out of the back seat and took a long pleasurable sniff of its fresh, exotic aroma. A lot of hard work went into that smell and he would take pleasure in it for once. He glanced up to find Gwen and Tosh both staring at him peculiarly. Their eyes drifted from him to the sulky retreat of their leader and back again, and Ianto blushed.

Ianto struggled to explain without revealing his intentions to either of them, "w-we had something about work to discuss..."

"Uh huh..."

Tosh and Gwen both gave him one more disbelieving glance before returning to their respective tasks of eating and scanning. Tosh was quickly absorbed back into her work in her worry, while Gwen ate one of the remaining sandwiches with much more propriety than Jack, and occasionally yawned. He was glad it seemed neither of them had heard the conversation.

Jack returned eventually, avoiding Ianto's gaze and Gwen's giggle as he spoke, "two minutes and we should head out."

Ianto cleared his throat and Jack gave him a harried frown.

"Ah yes Gwen… I had a brief look at the area and there doesn't seem much to do. Seeing as we'll be keeping you from Rhys tonight you can have a rest in the backseat..."

Gwen grinned sleepily in surprise and they all prepared to go back out again while she curled up in the back.

* * *

Within a minute, without her shoes off, a blanket or even a pillow, she was asleep. Tosh was waiting for Jack to give her the numberplates, and considering moving her friend slightly to stop her getting a sore back. She could've sworn that in the corner of her eye she spotted Jack mischievously taking photos of their friend but payed little heed of it.

"Jack, can I get the codes?"

He looked up from where he'd crammed a teddy bear between Gwen's arms and Tosh was momentarily distracted from her worry as she blinked at the odd sight of a kid's toy and a bright pink blanket wrapped around their friend. It was remarkable how used she was to seeing seats covered in guns or alien bodies.

She found herself making a mental note to investigate the photos later as he fiddled with his Vortex Manipulator. A moment later the machine in her hand hummed and she sprung into adding the car plates into the program that'd been scrounged from the mainframe. Jack paid her farewell, promising to return soon to see how it was all going.

No immediate matches came up so Tosh unwound the window for Gwen and set out for the much larger of the two warehouses with her bags of equipment. It was a fairly sunny day and Tosh was glad she'd left her jacket in the car as she hefted the heavy bags over to the sun-kissed door.

She shoved the stiff metal open with her shoulder and glanced over the expansive area. Ianto had been right. There really wasn't much to hide. Most of the warehouse floor space was dedicated to an open room that spanned the first floor and a few levels of landings above. A few smaller offices and control areas had been shoved into the far corners but they appeared empty, void a few ugly graffiti tags.

All of the equipment was long gone and the aliens had made little out of the space, setting up a line of old computers on a few of the leftover tables and connecting them all to a generator that'd thankfully also been left behind. They had a spare generator in the SUV but it'd be like dragging an elephant over.

She spotted Ianto ducking into a room above but decided not to interrupt. Instead she set down her bag and got to work on the first computer. Nothing. Tosh searched every nook and cranny of the computer but not so much as a line of script was out of place. She attached an alien hacking machine that Owen had thought looked like a toad so it was coined, "Scriptotoad" and moved to next computer. It was the same. The Scriptotoad came up with nothing either. Thus the same thing happened for every computer in the row. Finally Tosh went to the last computer and noticed something strange. And it was not good.

"Ianto," she yelled frantically as she scrambled to shove the Scriptotoad in her bag and gather her precious equipment, "Ianto, we've got to get out! There's a bomb attached to this computer! My scanner says we've only got a minute and a half till it goes off!"

Ianto appeared in the blink of the eye at the railing on the floor above, "Did you say _bomb_?"

"Yes, I did! Hurry up! My scanner is saying," she looked down again to get the reading, "the bomb doesn't appear particularly powerful but it could be big enough to damage the infrastructure! This whole place could come down! One minute, Ianto!"

Ianto had disappeared for the staircase and Tosh was torn between waiting for him or making a run with the equipment. She decided for the latter. There was no point endangering her life and the one-of-a-kind machinery when Ianto was a faster runner. She ran for the door and kicked it open far enough to scramble through, stumbling away from the door only to run headlong into a big jacket.

"Tosh, what's going on?" Jack asked as he took in her terrified state.

"A bomb," Tosh panted, "Ianto's behind me. We only have... a minute left..."

Jack immediately made for the door, "Tosh, don't wait. Get to the car."

Tosh took a deep breath and ignoring her aching arms and legs under the weight of the bags, sprinted haphazardly towards the SUV. Half way back to the car, an ear-splitting bang echoed behind her and the ground shook so violently a split second later that she nearly tumbled head over heels onto the concrete. As it was she awkwardly dropped her bags and they cluttered angrily around her. A moment later the force hit her and she blacked out...


End file.
